CHAPTER VIII.

THOUGHTS OF A BRIDE.

"The wedding-day is near, when thou must wear Fair garments, and fair gifts present to all The youths that lead thee home; for of such things The rumour travels far, and brings us honour, Cheering thy father's heart, and loving mother's."--_Odyssey._

Every valley or pieve of Cape Corso has its marina, its little port, and anything more lonely and sequestered than these hamlets on the quiet shore, it would be difficult to find. It was sultry noon when I reached the strand of Luri, the hour when Pan is wont to sleep. The people in the house where I was to wait for the little coasting-vessel, which was to convey me to Bastia, sat all as if in slumber. A lovely girl, seated at the open window, was sewing as if in dream upon a fazoletto, with a mysterious faint smile on her face, and absorbed, plainly, in all sorts of secret, pretty thoughts of her own. She was embroidering something on the handkerchief; and this something, I could see, was a little poem which her happy heart was making on her near marriage. The blue sea laughed through the window behind her back; it knew the story, for the fisher-maiden had made it full confession. The girl had on a sea-green dress, a flowered vest, and the mandile neatly wound about her hair; the mandile was snow-white, checked with triple rows of fine red stripes. To me, too, did Maria Benvenuta make confession of her open mystery, with copious prattle about winds and waves, and the beautiful music and dancing there would be at the wedding, up in the vale of Luri. For after some months will come the marriage festival, and as fine a one it will be as ever was held in Corsica.

On the morning of the day on which Benvenuta is to leave her mother's house, a splendid _trovata_ will stand at the entrance of her village, a green triumphal arch with many-coloured ribbons. The friends, the neighbours, the kinsfolk, will assemble on the Piazzetta to form the _corteo_--the bridal procession. Then a youth will go up to the gaily-dressed bride, and complain that she is leaving the place where she was so well cared for in her childhood, and where she never wanted for corals, nor flowers, nor friends. But since now she is resolved to go, he, with all his heart, in the name of her friends, wishes her happiness and prosperity, and bids her farewell. Then Maria Benvenuta bursts into tears, and she gives the youth a present, as a keepsake for the commune. A horse, finely decorated, is brought before the house, the bride mounts it, young men fully armed ride beside her, their hats wreathed with flowers and ribbons, and so the _corteo_ moves onwards through the triumphal arch. One youth bears the _freno_--the symbol of fruitfulness, a distaff encircled at its top with spindles, and decked with ribbons. A handkerchief waves from it as flag. This freno in his hand, the _freniere_ rides proudly at the head of the procession.

The _cortège_ approaches Campo, where the bridegroom lives, and into his house the bride is now to be conducted. At the entrance of Campo stands another magnificent trovata. A youth steps forward, holding high in his hand an olive-twig streaming with ribbons. This, with wise old-fashioned sayings, he puts into the hand of the bride. Here two of the young men of the bride's _corteo_ gallop off in furious haste towards the bridegroom's house; they are riding for the _vanto_, that is, the honour of being the first to bring the bride the key of the bridegroom's house. A flower is the symbol of the key. The fastest rider has won it, and exultingly holding it in his hand, he gallops back to the bride, to present to her the symbol. The procession is now moving towards the house. Women and girls crowd the balconies, and strew upon the bride, flowers, rice, grains of wheat, and throw the fruits that are in season among the procession with merry shoutings, and wishes of joy. This is called _Le Grazie_. Ceaseless is the din of muskets, mandolines, and the cornamusa, or bagpipe. Such jubilation as there is in Campo, such shooting, and huzzaing, and twanging, and fiddling! Such a joyous stir as there is in the air of spring-swallows, lark-songs, flying flowers, wheat-grains, ribbons--and all about this little Maria Benvenuta, who sits here at the window, and embroiders the whole story on the fazoletto.

But now the old father-in-law issues from the house, and thus gravely addresses the Corteo of strangers:--"Who are you, men thus armed?--friends or foes? Are you conductors of this _donna gentile_, or have you carried her off, although to appearance you are noble and valiant men?" The bridesman answers, "We are your friends and guests, and we escort this fair and worthy maiden, the pledge of our new friendship. We plucked the fairest flower of the strand of Luri, to bring it as a gift to Campo."

"Welcome, then, my friends and guests, enter my house, and refresh you at the feast;" thus replies again the bridegroom's father, lifts the maiden from her horse, embraces her, and leads her into the house. There the happy bridegroom folds her in his arms, and this is done to quite a reckless amount of merriment on the sixteen-stringed cithern, and the cornamusa.

Now we go into the church, where the tapers are already lit, and the myrtles profusely strewn. And when the pair have been joined, and again enter the bridegroom's house, they see, standing in the guest-chamber, two stools; on these the happy couple seat themselves, and now comes a woman, roguishly smiling, with a little child in swaddling clothes in her arms. She lays the child in the arm of the bride. The little Maria Benvenuta does not blush by any means, but takes the baby and kisses and fondles it right heartily. Then she puts on his head a little Phrygian cap, richly decked with particoloured ribbons. When this part of the ceremony has been gone through, the kinsfolk embrace the pair, and each wishes the good old wish:--

"Dio vi dia buona fortuna, Tre di maschi e femmin' una:"

--that is, God give you good luck, three sons and a daughter. The bride now distributes little gifts to her husband's relatives; the nearest relation receives a small coin. Then follow the feast and the balls, at which they will dance the _cerca_, and the _marsiliana_, and the _tarantella_.

Whether they will observe the rest of the old usages, as they are given in the chronicle, I do not know. But in former times it was the custom that a young relation of the bride should precede her into the nuptial chamber. Here he jumped and rolled several times over the bridal-bed, then, the bride sitting down on it, he untied the ribbons on her shoes, as respectfully as we see upon the old sculptures Anchises unloosing the sandals of Venus, as she sits upon her couch. The bride now moved her little feet prettily till the shoes slipped to the ground; and to the youth who had untied them, she gave a present of money. To make a long story short, they will have a merry time of it at Benvenuta's wedding, and when long years have gone by, they will still remember it in the Valley of Campo.

All this we gossiped over very gravely in the boatman's little house at Luri; and I know the cradle-song too with which Maria Benvenuta will hush her little son to sleep--

"Ninniná, my darling, my doated-on! Ninniná, my one only good! Thou art a little ship dancing along, Dancing along on an azure flood, Fearing not the waves' rough glee, Nor the winds that sweep the sea Sweet sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_.

"Little ship laden with pearls, my precious one, Laden with silks and with damasks so gay, With sails of brocade that have wafted it on From an Indian port, far, far away; And a rudder all of gold, Wrought with skill to worth untold. Sound sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_.

"When thou wast born, thou darling one, To the holy font they bore thee soon. God-papa to thee the sun, And thy god-mamma the moon; And the baby stars that shine on high, Rock'd their gold cradles joyfully. Soft sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_.

"Darling of darlings--brighter the heaven, Deeper its blue as it smiled on thee; Even the stately planets seven, Brought thee presents rich and free; And the mountain shepherds all, Kept an eight-days' festival! Sweet sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_.

"Nothing was heard but the cithern, my beauty, Nothing but dancing on every side, In the sweet vale of Cuscioni Through the country far and wide Boccanera and Falconi Echoed with their wonted glee. Sound sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_.

"Darling, when thou art taller grown, Free thou shalt wander through meadows fair, Every flower shall be newly-blown, Oil shall shine 'stead of dewdrops there, And the water in the sea Changed to rarest balsam be. Soft sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_.

"Then the mountains shall rise before baby's eyes, All cover'd with lambs as white as snow; And the Chamois wild shall bound after the child, And the playful fawn and gentle doe; But the hawk so fierce and the fox so sly, Away from this valley far must hie. Sweet sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_.

"Darling--earliest blossom mine, Beauteous thou, beyond compare; In Bavella born to shine, And in Cuscioni fair, Fourfold trefoil leaf so bright, Kids would nibble--if they might! Sweet sleep now get--sleep, mother's pet, I'll sing thee _ninni nani_."

Should, perhaps, the child be too much excited by such a fanciful song, the mother will sing him this little nanna, whereupon he will immediately fall asleep--

"Ninni, ninni, ninni nanna, Ninni, ninni, ninni nolu, Allegrezza di la mamma Addormentati, O figliuolu."